Air Quality Could Determine Cost of Bus Fare
None by Eric Ray
(KCPW News) The state's air quality could soon determine just how much passengers pay to ride the bus if a measure in front of Utah lawmakers passes.House Bill 298 calls for half-price fares on days of moderate air quality, and free fares on days of poor air quality. The measure's sponsor, Republican Representative Wayne Harper of Salt Lake County, says the bill has two goals - to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion.
UTA Spokesperson Carrie Bohnsack Ware says one technicality is whether UTA will have to offer refunds on the large number of pre-paid monthly and student passes. The other issue is how UTA will re-coup the nearly $4 million in annual losses the program is expected to suffer.
The bill is scheduled to go before the House Business and Labor Committee this afternoon.
Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom, Legislative Coverage, and 2008 Legislative Coverage. Copyright 2008 KCPW
1. Michael T Packard BSEE said:
It won't do any good.Most of the people who work or go to school on transit already have free or highly discounted passes. Adding new passes won't add many riders.
UTA's Eco and Ed passes total nearly 200,000. All downtown governemtn, most business, most big medical companies, and the U of U/ U Hospital all have pass programs.
These comprise the groups where UTA finds it easiest to provide usable service.
As the 1997 West Valley RUDAT Report by the AIA noted, "95% of the population does not find transit a convenient or feasible alternative." (to driving)
Also, the new Legislative Audit of UTA notes on page 85, "Buses create so much NOx that the reductions from light rail and vanpool are more than offset. Commuter rail will more than triple this NOx deficit from 185 tons a year to over 600 tons a year.
Those dirty-diesel bus and locomotive technologies UTA is spending so much on, wipe out far into the future any possible gains from light rail, even if ridership magically doubled.
P.S. UTA's late revelations of reduced TRAX ridership show it has very little sustaining growth. Most growth in TRAX ridership has come from adding new lines. After initial jumps , ridership has leveled off till the next rail line opens.
That kind of performance is not competetive with cars on any type of roads, partuicularly freeways.
2. Michael T Packard BSEE said:
I'd better modify the last sentence in the first post above.
It should have read, "Kill southwestern Salt Lake valley!"
Airport TRAX would help downtown most of all.
It would help the northwest part of the city a little.
But, by using up so much money, now, at this challenging time in our history, Airport TRAX WILL, along with other TRAX lines that will do so little, criple the central western and southwestern areas of the valley.
P.S. A sidelight about another foolish rail project. On page 52 of the Legislature's audit of UTA it points to the Draper 346 Fast Bus route as the third worst daytime bus route in the UTA system and recommends its discontinuation if it does not improve.
This is just the kind of absurdity that underlies so much of the pro transit religion...a proposed $1/4 billion light rail built "on top" of a failed, part time, bus route.
BTW The initial study of Draper TRAX claims a daily congestion reduction for Salt Lake County of a whopping 5 hours a day!(Executive Summary, page ES-6) You could do that much with a half dozen bicycles!